Returning once more to the Tree Heart, Old Niu silently observed the gaunt Wang Wu, without a word, just quietly served up 10 spirit fruits.

They all understood that it was crucial to gather as much strength as possible at this time. The more they prepare now, the higher their chances of surviving on the road to escape.

Wang Wu was desperately fighting; Old Niu was also giving it his all, and even the little wild boar was striving hard.

Fortunately, all three seemed to have achieved good results.

After the crazed consumption of the Tree Heart, it gradually seemed to have touched upon the path to condensing an Acupoint Opening Demon Pill. The Seventh Grade no longer seemed so unattainable.

As for the little wild boar, this time its digging became a fortuitous opportunity. It found the right path—that its Pig Iron Beak had a better chance of becoming a Ninth-Grade Lifebound Demon Soldier, rather than its four tusks that were more decorative than practical in battle.

Truly, it was confident that before leaving, it could cultivate its Pig Iron Beak into a Ninth-Grade Lifebound Demon Soldier, which was indeed a great surprise.

In comparison, among the West Mountain Three Heroes, the one that currently seemed the least remarkable was this third brother with the demeanor of an old master.

But no worries, the big brother has got your back.

Wang Wu also didn't say anything to Old Niu, slowly consumed each spirit fruit, and then let out a contented sigh as if revived again.

Ten pieces, 4,000 points of Spiritual Qi, equivalent to nearly 8,000 points of satiety. Truly, having Old Niu as the logistics manager was a blessing.

Then, he closed his eyes and opened the attribute bar.

His current total Spiritual Qi was 4,500 points. He had thought about waiting a couple more days, eating a few more spirit fruits to make it 5,000 points of Spiritual Qi, but he really couldn't endure any longer. If he pushed it, his basic attributes would drop.

Now, it's just perfect.

So let's add some points.

Consuming 2,500 points of Spiritual Qi, Wang Wu unhesitatingly added to his Basic Power, raising it from 60 points to 61 points.

Then he waited half a day, but nothing happened. As expected, without meeting certain conditions, the bloodline secret technique wouldn't activate.

Especially without the full-of-energy condition, it was just a pipe dream.

At this moment, he still had 2,000 points of Spiritual Qi left, yet he couldn't continue to add to his basic attributes.

Though it was just a matter of asking Old Niu for two more spirit fruits, and the little wild boar's fruits for today were still there.

But one can't just go about it like this.

So Wang Wu thought for a bit, used 500 points of Spiritual Qi to increase satiety to 1,250 points.

Then used another 1,000 points of Spiritual Qi to upgrade the branch bloodline talent of Passive Burning to Level 3, which was pretty much the top tier.

The same as Plant Affinity and Passive Frost.

[Bloodline Branch Talent: Passive Burning Level 3]

[Talent Effect 1: You gain 150 points of fire poison damage immunity, with a maximum 150% fire poison damage healing speed]

[Talent Effect 2: When possessing 1 point of Red Flame Spiritual Qi, any attack on an enemy target will add 0.3 points of Red Flame Burn damage, and this will not consume Red Flame Spiritual Qi. This effect can stack up to 200 layers, meaning if you have 200 points of Red Flame Spiritual Qi, you will deal a maximum of 60 points of Red Flame Burn damage to the target]

[Talent Effect 3: Fire Spirit Root cultivation effectiveness increases by 70%]

——

Not bad!

Though Old Niu said that cultivating Spirit Roots for a demon was like straying from one's main path and consuming too much energy, for Wang Wu, the cost effectiveness was still quite okay.

The Human Race has an old saying, "The more skills, the less pressure."

Thinking this, Wang Wu quickly fell into a fatigued sleep.

He desperately needed to rest, and with Old Niu around, he didn't even need to worry.

When he woke up, he was still quite tired, sore all over, with a glow of green on the attribute bar.

It seemed he needed at least three days of rest to return to the basic pass mark.

Standing up, he saw the little wild boar had also returned. After not seeing him for ten days, how had this fellow shrunk? Even being skin and bones from exhaustion shouldn't make the skeletal structure shrink!

"Ah, Third Brother, how did you get so skinny? Outside, I might not even recognize you. Where did this big macaque come from? Haha, Big Brother, don't say it, Third Brother really looks like a monkey, with that listless demeanor, someone might think he got drained by a female demon!"

The little wild boar joked lightheartedly, its large mouth grinning from ear to ear, obviously amused.

"Look who's talking, haven't you shrunk too?"

Wang Wu sat across from the little wild boar, completely unconcerned about his image.

As time went on, he also picked up on their silly ways.

But it didn't matter, he didn't mind at all.

"Hey, my shrinking has its reasons, Third Brother, you'd never guess. This digging unexpectedly opened up three meridians, and I successfully cultivated an Earth Spirit Root. From now on, I'm also a little demon with dual spirit roots. Also, Big Brother had already cultivated a Wood Spirit Root previously. Counting the Ice Spirit Root, that's also dual spirit roots!"

"Ah, ah, I feel like we, the West Mountain Three Heroes, are truly unparalleled geniuses. Who else but us can become the three millennial demons that unite the West Wilderness in the future!"

The Little Wild Boar boasted, spittle flying everywhere.

Wang Wu listened lazily, not even interested in responding. Genius or not, it still depends on resources. This is the West Mountain Temple, where the branch Tree Heart of Grandpa Xishan Tree is located.

If it weren't for the centuries-long scheming of the Human Race Cultivators to create such a Grotto Heaven Blessed Land, would the three of them, Little Demons, have the chance to come here and wreak havoc?

In this environment, bolstered by such resources, if they still can't take off, that would indeed be a strange situation!

The Little Wild Boar kept babbling, Wang Wu absentmindedly listened, while Old Niu was tirelessly digging up Tree Heart shavings nearby. Even though its Companion Spirit Vine had advanced to the Seventh Grade, it couldn't convert much of the high-grade Tree Heart wood shavings every day, so it planned to take as much as it could.

When the Little Wild Boar finally stopped babbling, its snores followed, like a thunderous roll breaking the silence, as magnificent as spring thunder in the desert.

It was indeed putting in significant effort.

Aside from being inferior to Wang Wu in Bloodline Talent, and lacking a human soul, its efforts were no less diligent.

Accompanied by its snores, Wang Wu again fell asleep.

Upon waking, the Little Wild Boar was gone, off to dig again, leaving only the ever-consistent Old Niu.

Oh, and the daily portion of Spirit Fruits as usual.

Old Niu grew more silent by the day, while the Little Wild Boar became increasingly talkative, with Wang Wu approaching a state of emaciation.

After resting at the Tree Heart for three days, Wang Wu still looked like an emaciated Big Macaque, especially when standing upright.

Yet, he had at least passed the moderate weakness stage and returned to the state of "Five-Times Lang."

So, he quietly left, resuming the refining of Profound Iron and cultivating Lifebound Demon Soldiers.

This time, however, he lasted only seven days, barely scraping together 3,000 attempts, but thankfully achieved good results, extracting 3 points of Essence of Gold Qi, bringing the total to 12/1000.

And upon his return, even the previously energetic Little Wild Boar was silent. An unspoken anxiety had taken root in the hearts of the three of them, refusing to dissipate.

Because by their calculations, this winter was nearly over, and no one knew what the situation outside was like. What if that Wolf Destruction suddenly had time and decided to come harvest the Great Illusion King Insect?

They weren't ready yet.

More precisely, the Little Wild Boar's tunnel wasn't ready, though in truth it hadn't been digging slowly.

The original plan was to finish in a month, and only twenty days had passed.

Surely, with only ten more days needed, they would be fine.

But that's the nature of things; the closer the critical moment, the greater the worry.

This worry grows exponentially with time, potentially driving them to the brink of collapse.

After all, not even Wang Wu dared to guarantee they had such luck.

The Wolf Destruction did say it would wait until spring, but is that really the case?

"Ten more days, and winter will end. I feel we can't wait any longer. We should all enter the tunnel. From now on, I won't eat Spirit Fruits anymore. All Spirit Fruit supplies should go to Little Pig. We will lie dormant in the tunnel, or else it's too dangerous."

Wang Wu's original plan was to refine Profound Iron another 3,000 times and reach 15 points of Essence of Gold Qi, but decided to change his mind.

Upon hearing this, Old Niu looked up at Little Pig. Yes, now their fate was tied to that of the Little Wild Boar. They knew nothing about how its tunnel had progressed over the past twenty days.

The Little Wild Boar fell silent, clearly anxious.

"Big Brother, Third Brother, this is indeed a way to avoid risks ahead of time. We really shouldn't be too reckless. However, once we enter the tunnel, according to my previous plan, I will use special methods, along with Big Brother's vine, to block the tunnel entrance. That means for every distance we move forward, we must backfill the same distance."

"This will lead to several issues, like breathing. At this Tree Heart location, breathing isn't a problem. But underground, once we seal our retreat, the existing space isn't enough for the three of us to breathe for a single day. And I really can't dig an exit in one day; I need at least ten days. Can we survive ten days without breathing underground?"

After hearing this, Old Niu thought for a moment, nodded. "I have a Seventh-Grade Spirit Vine, I can hold my breath for half a month, no problem. But the vine cannot help you two."

Wang Wu also thought and calculated, "I can probably hold my breath for about six days. What about you, Little Pig?"

"Six days?"

The Little Wild Boar looked up in shock. Even Old Niu was surprised, glancing at Wang Wu, who looked like a White Bone Spirit and couldn't maintain even a three hundred kilogram weight, yet could still hold his breath for six days. This was no joke.

If Old Niu didn't have the Companion Spirit Vine, it wouldn't dare claim it could hold its breath for six days.

"Third Brother, are you sure?"

"Basically sure. Maybe I can hold on for another day, but doing that would truly be suicide," Wang Wu sighed. Actually, if he were still in his previous peak state, he believed holding his breath for ten days wouldn't be an issue.

But there's really no way around this.

"Oh wow! I never expected, even after advancing to Eighth Grade, I still feel like the weakest one? Did I advance for nothing?"

The Little Wild Boar was deeply disheartened. It estimated that even using all its means, it could only hold its breath for three days.

Ah, ah, ah, this is... It was very unhappy.

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